Improving resource discovery and evaluation: User ‘context’ and contributions
How can we make resource discovery and evaluation in more effective? Using clickstreams and other user ‘context’ information (e.g. profiles) are an integral part of many services on the web—not least our old friends Google and Amazon. User contributions in the form of tagging, reviews, ratings etc are commonplace. Services like Flikr couldn’t work without them. These approaches are becoming more common in the library domain too. Vendors are adding these features to their (typically Vertical Search) products and some pioneering libraries have taken the task into their own hands. Such features have clear utility it seems: so why isn’t there much wider adoption in HE, in particular where a student’s context (course, module, year) is comparatively well defined? Isn’t there a clear case for recommender services for example? How might we best make use of the data we already have (in library, registry and VLE systems for example). What kind of ‘architecture of participation’ do we need to make best use of user generated content?The UK’s JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries) believe there is real opportunity in working together with a wide variety of stakeholders in the domain (including libraries and software vendors) to make progress. The TILE project is a result.
It’s early days and we’ve started to scope some specific issues. We have an impressive ‘Reference Group’ of librarians, developers and vendors from around the world to help us. I’d be interested to know about what is already going on this field. Our scope is predominantly Higher Education but we are open, of course, to ideas from elsewhere. I’ve identified some exemplars in a very short introductory presentation I gave to our Reference Group this month. If you want more detailed background on the project here are some resources:-
Ken Chad, Director, Ken Chad Consulting Ltd. Member of the TILE Project
Tel +44 (0)7788 727 845.Email: ken@kenchadconsulting.com www.kenchadconsulting.com
TILE : Introductory presentation. This gives some background, some exemplars and diagrams of the key issues– ‘pain points’– we are looking at
Formal project description (JISC)
The International e-framework. JISC is keen to link what libraries do to the wider Intenational e-framework. “The e-Framework for Education and Research is an international initiative that provides information to institutions on investing in and using information technology infrastructure. It advocates service-oriented approaches to facilitate technical interoperability of core infrastructure as well as effective use of available funding”.
JISC Libraries of the future initiative
JISC SCONUL LMS study. The TILE project emerged from some of the issues raised by this study. This is a large report. For a good summary start with section 7 ‘Making Decisions’